Kottayam : A temple elephant in the world famous Parthasarathy Temple in Aranmula turned  violent after a procession on Tuesday and  damaged several cars. A few passengers were injured.

Eyewitnesses said, the  elephant  turned violent after the culmination of the procession at the Parthasarathy Temple  in Aranmula and began attacking cars.

The elephant damaged a building inside the temple premises Two mahouts attending to the elephant had a miraculous escape and the pachyderm was controlled after a tranquilizer shot .

The elephant, `Vishnu’, is owned by a private party in Channanikkad, Kottayam district. It  turned violent when the main mahout, was removing the caparison from its head after the procession .

The violent elephant then charged towards the devaswom building, partially demolishing it.

But for the timely intervention of the elephant squad, the animal would have turned against the near 500 strong crowd of devotees, including women and children, who were attending a ceremony inside the temple premises.

The violent elephant was given a tranquilizer shot and brought under control by the elephant squad.

The mahouts said, the elephant might have been exhausted due to loss of sleep during the past three days. Besides the continuous high decibel of sound and bright illumination could have affected the elephant.

Fireworks  planned as part of the concluding ceremony in the morning was abandoned.